Chairman’s Welcome Letter - Copa Patagonia 2014

Fifteen years after those hectic days in November 1999 we tend to think that we aren’t a bit older but just grew up. During fifteen years our tournament has been the meeting point for many young boys and girls from our city with young boys and girls coming from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa; one thousand and nine hundred people in all. We first started with rugby, then added women’s hockey, then softball and recently basketball.

Each edition of the Patagonia Cup means an opportunity to renew old acquaintances and it also means a burst of enthusiasm for players, officials, referees, sponsors and supporters. Everybody wants to be part of it and this wave of enthusiasm is a positive and contagious elan for all of us to carry on with the pains and joys of the approaching sports season. There are lifelong friendships about to start. And besides, the Patagonia Cup puts Bahía Blanca in the map of interesting sports events, in our country and abroad, providing a challenging environment that can only be good for everyone involved.

Twenty three teams are taking part of this eighth edition of the Patagonia Cup including three national representatives: Los Jaguares, Los Teros and Las Leoncitas. It’s a honor for us that sports federations from Argentina, Uruguay and New Zealand consider The Patagonia Cup as a worthwhile tournament; it is as well a driving force that stirs our commitment to improve and do things better. Properly timed, well organised and with a reasonably high level, The Patagonia Cup will be the best option for preseason competition in South America and the Southern Hemisphere. At least it has been so considered by the Argentina Rugby Union, the Uruguay Rugby Union, the Argetinean Hockey Federation, the Canterbury Referees Association and Canterbury Basketball.

The Patagonia Cup has the privilege of counting with the unconditional support of the greatest little rugby club of the world, Christchurch High School Old Boys which has  produced over thirty All Blacks since 1900. Ken Pope has been the organiser of all eight trips in fifteen years. Ken’s commitment with Bahía Blanca and the Patagonia Cup is in every possible sense unwavering, as it proved to be under the hardest conditions; Christchurch being hit and almost utterly destroyed by two letal earthquakes in 2010 and 2011 was not an obstacle for him to get his boys organised, and he came over.

We would like to remark the support of the referees of our Union and  the attendance of the International referee Ignacio Pastrana; we would also like to thank the Canterbury Referees Association for sending over Darren Folau as part of the exchange program signed with the Unión de Rugby del Sur in 2005.

The inclusion of basketball, with Estudiantes, Olimpo, Villa Mitre, Napostá and El Nacional along with the first basketball team from New Zealand  ever to be town, Canterbury Basketball,  will be a milestone for the Patagonia Cup; the hockey competition will be also challenging with the National U21 side and the best teams of Bahía Blanca, Sociedad Sportiva, Argentino, Pacífico, Palihue, El Nacional, with the higly competitive side from Monte Hermoso, the holder of the Patagonia Cup, plus Olivos Rugby Hockey club from Buenos Aires, while the softball will have another go fielding six sides from our city, Santa Rosa and Buenos Aires.

We would like to welcome and hearty thank every single person involved in the Patagonia Cup, players, officials, referees, sponsors and spectators for their awesome and faithful support renewed with every edition.

Marcelo Zabaloy
Chairman